CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Racial disparities in criminal justice



Racial disparities in criminal justice

Introduction

The United States gets a failing grade when it comes to meeting international standards on racial equality, according to the recent finding of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland (Walker& DeLone, 2007).

The U.S. government is catching heat from the committee mainly for its treatment of Blacks, Latinos, Indians and other racial minorities, according to Interpress Service. After considering the U.S. government's written and oral testimony, the 18-member committee of international legal experts said it found "stark racial disparities" in U.S. institutions, including its criminal justice system.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is responsible for monitoring global compliance with the 1969 Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, an international treaty that has been ratified by the United States.

In concluding the CERD report on the U.S. record, the panel of experts called for the Bush administration to take effective actions to end racist practices against minorities in the areas of criminal justice, housing, health care and education (Vold, 1958).

The scale of racial disparity with the criminal justice system is shocking. African-Americans are incarcerated at a rate of nearly 6 (5.6) times the rate of whites. The Sentencing Project, Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity 3 (2007). One in three (32%) of black males can expect to serve time in prison at some time in their lives, Hispanic males have a 17% chance and white males have a 6% chance.

Aim of the Study

In this Thesis proposal an attempt to try, decode and explain in plain English what this racial disparity in criminal justice is all about.

Objectives of Research

To investigate a number of aspects of the racial disparities in criminal justice

To explore how these racial disparity factors effects on criminal justice.

Literature review

Inequality and Crime

A recurrent theme in the macro-level criminology literature suggests that crime rates vary directly with the extent of social inequality. In fact, both classic and contemporary crime scholars proffer the thesis that inequality in income, employment, and education are predictive of crime. Generally speaking, theories of the nexus between inequality and crime can be sorted into two groups (Sellin, 1938). The first group consists of theories that envision social inequality as a salient cause of criminal behavior. In contrast, the second group argues that social inequality affects the definition of crime and the application of criminal justice mechanisms.

Inequality and Criminal Behavior

Relative Deprivation Theory

The most prominent inequality-crime argument is the relative deprivation thesis. This argument suggests that criminal behavior is motivated by a feeling of injustice that individuals experience when they become aware that others are more economically advantaged. Relative deprivation is thus a social-psychological construct that arises from a subjective perception of inequity. Because individuals who exhibit little objective economic need can perceive that they have less than others, the relative deprivation explanation can be applied to criminality at lower as well as upper ends of the economic ...